Red Bulls coach Hans Backe talked today of the difficulty in pulling off trades in MLS, how teams always want a king’s ransom. Ironic, because that’s what many feel the club gave away in one of the most heavily-criticized trades in league history, when they gave away Dwayne De Rosario to archrival D.C. United.

Neither Backe nor captain Thierry Henry would call the deal a mistake. But the latter called the Canadian star the best player in MLS and said he’d love to play alongside a creative force like that; and when the former was asked if shipping De Rosario away was a mistake, he wouldn’t say it wasn’t.

“(Was it a mistake?) Both yes and no,’’ said Backe, responded they could’ve kept him for this season, but it would’ve been nothing more than a rental because his salary would’ve made him impossible to keep for 2012.

“Short-term we could’ve kept him,’’ said Backe. “But looking with the salary cap for next year it is a killer. There is no chance with the number he has. (But we have) a young American guy (in Dax McCarty), the possibility for the future and much less salary.’’

Through De Rosario’s history, he has excelled when he dominates the ball, something unlikely to happen in New York as long as Henry is here. There is, however the question of whether the Red Bulls could’ve extracted something more than McCarty in return from United, or found a more appropriate suitor.

For his part, Henry himself continued his gushing praise of De Rosario, saying the Canadian star _ who had 16 goals and a dozen assists _ was the best player he’d seen in MLS and should be the face of the league. And he also expressed a desire to have a player like him in the squad.

“With Dwayne you’ve got to use him well. In this league I haven’t seen anybody better than Dwayne de Rosario,’’ said Henry. “It’s easy to say that because he scored 16 and 12, but I saw him in training, I thought he was a decent player in Toronto and when I saw his record _ he’s won four MLS Cups and been in the league for a very long time _ for me he’s the face of this league.

“His record talks for himself. He showed he has the word I’m not going to say, but he has a lot of it. He played against us, shut us down; he went to San Jose, he scored three; and he played against Toronto and he killed them too. You always need a Dwayne de Rosario in your squad. We had him, and he went for the reasons the boss knows and the organization, but you always need a guy like that around.’’

That need was underscored in the road leg of the Western Conference semis at Los Angeles, when Rafa Marquez was suspended and Teemu Tainio was forced off with an injury. The Red Bulls couldn’t hold possession and were reduced to punting longballs up the field.

“Again, I’m not having a go at anybody; I’m not saying we should, we shouldn’t. I’m just saying,’’ said Henry. “Who wouldn’t like to have a guy like him? If you go back to the game against L.A., as long as we played through the lines and reached me, then I was about to do stuff. Then we started to play longball. If you have a No. 10 and you play longball, what’s the point to have a No. 10? I can do that; but play me on the ground, and then we can do some things.’’